Tactical Hybrid from TiNives, now long defunct, sadly. It is a truly Hi-Tech knife. I don't have the exact numbers, but as some people say it takes 300 000 lines of code for CNC machine to create the handle for this knife. Anyway, it's an interesting piece of work. There are several interesting points about this knife. Overall I like it, a beautiful one, so to say. Though many object (and they have a reason) that it is overpriced, but long as it sells... Besides now that TiNives introduced the new, Speedroller locking mechanism from Larry Chew, price went down considerably, yet it remained on the expensive side. So, in general this is an expensive, semi-custom knife.
The Blade
- The geometry is just great IMHO, I like it a lot. Looks just great. Spearpoint, hollow-grind blade, looks quite aggressive. Well, after all it is a tactical knife, though in the configuration I got, it is rather a display piece :) By the way this is one of the few knives that came with a very sharp full convex edge, the strongest, but the most difficult to grind at first place. Matter of fact, the only folding knife I have with convex edge, other than that, only some of the Busse variants have full convex edge. Hand ground, damasteel blade was scary sharp right out of the box. For that price though, one should expect that level quality and more. TiNives logo is etched on the blade, probably an acid. What's sort of disappointing, is the fact that the etching is far from the perfection :( It has some flaws. Like I said for around 500$ I'd expect better quality. Other than that I haven't found any other defects.The Handle
- One of the most interesting details in this knife is the handle. Made of titanium it so light that when you handle the knife seems like the whole weight is in the blade, in other words TiNives are very blade heavy. This is quite unusual feeling, that kind of balance in the knife and many find it rather inconvenient. To me it was Ok, especially that I don't carry that knife everyday. The handle is 3D sculpted, as I have mentioned it is don by CNC machine and quite some work is "invested" in the handle making process. TiNives had quite wide array of handle options. That includes materials and colors. For more details you can check their web site, well not anymore...The Locking Mechanism
- Originally TiNives was featuring ceramic ball opening mechanism that consisted of 83 ceramics balls, since ceramics is very wear resistant, the action was very smooth and consistent. However the price was quite high, not sure if that was the only reason, but later TiNives introduced a new, Speedroller lock, that is a brainchild of the custom knifemaker Larry Chew. As many folks say it is comparably smooth, comparably means with ceramic balls. Don't know about ceramics, but the one that I have, Speedroller is not very impressive in terms of smoothness. Either I was expecting too much, either something is wrong, but my axis lock knives, after I worked on them little bit, just polished few things and cleaned/lubed washers, I have smoother action. One possible reason could be that my tactical hybrid mostly sits in the box, i.e. the action doesn't see much of the "action".
- Specifications:
- Model: Tactical Hybrid;
- Blade - 107.95mm(4.25");
- Thickness - 3.04mm;
- OAL - 234.95mm(9.25");
- Steel: Damasteel;
- Handle - Aluminum, 3d sculpted;
- Lock Mechanism: Speedroller Lock;
- Warranty: Limited Lifetime;
- Acquired - 09/2000 Price - 502.00$;
Last updated - 05/19/19